verb
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to pronounce or articulate (continuous connected speech) with a characteristic rise and fall of the voice
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a less common word for intone
Etymology
Origin of intonate
1785–95; < Medieval Latin intonātus, past participle of intonāre to intone. See -ate 1
Explanation
To intonate is to speak in a deliberate, almost musical way. Most poets intonate when they read their poems aloud. You'll intonate when you're speaking carefully to someone who can't hear well, and also when you're giving a speech. Chanting or reciting a story, song, or piece of verse also requires you to intonate — modulating the way your voice rises and falls as you speak. Intonate comes from the Medieval Latin intonare, "speak according to tone," from the Greek root tonos, "string," or "pitch."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Solomon said in a singsong, the way people intonate when they are not quite convinced of what they are saying.
From New York Times • Jan. 18, 2022
They have this way they intonate their words.
From The Guardian • Aug. 17, 2010
The motor ideas with which the speech movement has to start are cut off and the subject yields passively to the fate that he cannot intonate his voice.
From Psychotherapy by Münsterberg, Hugo
"Nevertheless," observed Darby, with an air of ill-dissembled condescension, "if it isn't umbrageous to your honor, I 'll intonate something in the way of an ode or a canticle."
From Tom Burke Of "Ours", Volume I by Lever, Charles James
"Ole Billie Bawlie" found as Number 4 was a little song which was used to deride men who had little ability musically to intonate "calls" and "sponses."
From Negro Folk Rhymes Wise and Otherwise: With a Study by Talley, Thomas Washington
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
